U.S. tensions with Venezuela have reached an unprecedented peak as President Trump officially designated Nicolás Maduro’s regime a foreign terrorist organization and ordered a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or exiting the country.

In a post on Truth Social, the president declared his administration would label Maduro’s regime a foreign terrorist organization for “theft of our assets” and other crimes including terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. Trump also announced a “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela.”

The president warned that Venezuela is “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” adding that the shock to the regime would be unprecedented until Maduro returned all stolen assets—oil, land, and other resources—to the United States.

“The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping,” Trump stated in his post.

Venezuela condemned the move as a “reckless and serious threat.” The action escalates pressure on Caracas by targeting its economic lifeline—the oil sector—which has already faced strain from recent sanctions and last week’s seizure of a Venezuelan tanker.

U.S. sanctions on Venezuela have been in place since 2005. In 2019, the first Trump administration blocked all crude exports from state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Chevron, the sole U.S. company drilling in Venezuela under a sanctions carve-out, paid a percentage of its output to PDVSA until Trump recently revoked and reissued its license with conditions that no proceeds go to Maduro.

Venezuela’s oil reserves are the world’s largest but operate below capacity due to international sanctions, with much of the country’s oil exported to China.